Posts tagged Purim

I’ll share a few ideas about Purim and then a few ideas about Parsha Tetsaveh, and I see a common denominator between them, which is finding extraordinary consciousness inside ourselves. It may sound familiar, even repetitious of the previous weeks’ posts, but I can’t help seeing it in parsha after parsha.

Purim is a very Holy, above-nature day, when we shift the way we see reality. You might say, we see that the root of nature is super-nature, or the super-natural. That’s what Purim is about, in general. It’s a day when we are able to overcome the deepest, most antagonistic, Amalek forces in our lives. Those are the forces shouting at us that we are not worthy, and everything is happenstance, causing doubts about ourselves and our connections to G-d. We are able to overcome all of that.

It’s a day when we walk into the mystery, the Ayin, the Nothingness, and we come out in a sort of alchemy. We transform into a whole new type of human being. Purim is a day we come to understand opposites, the diametric opposites of despairing, dark reality and the most beautiful, breath-taking salvation we can experience. We begin to understand it not only in the Purim story, but in our lives.

It’s a day when we can reach out our hands and we will be given whatever we desire, in terms of prayer and charity, for example. We have to hold back on this day and realize that G-d is running the whole show anyway.

Those are a few ideas Purim represents for us. We see that a week before Purim is the day that Moshe Rabeinu was born, and it’s also the day he passed away. Moshe represents so much for us; he represents the pinnacle of being human, of human prophesy, leadership and humility. He represents the whole Torah, so it’s a good time right now to study his words, the best we can.

Now let’s jump into Parsha Tetsaveh, which is also all about extraordinary consciousness. One thing we notice is the Eternal Light, which burned all the time in the Temple. (Remember, everything in the Temple is us. G-d said, “Make me a Tabernacle, and I will dwell inside of you.” He didn’t say, “inside of it,” but he said, “inside of you.” That means the Israelites themselves.)

Everything Torah teaches about the Tabernacle is really about what we have inside of us, so we have an eternal light within us, and we need to find that light because it never goes out. No matter what situations we face and how hopeless they may seem, there is the place of light inside, and the eternal light never goes out.

There’s a place inside us that’s called Urim v’ Tumim. The light on the breastplate of the High Priest, which was made of the letters representing the tribes, and which was used to answer the most important questions regarding the Israelite nation, lit up supernaturally to answer to provide answers. And we, too, can get answers to any questions we ask if we have the faith and trust inside us.

Parsha Tetsaveh also talks about the concept of holy clothes, meaning the clothing worn by the priests and the High Priest. We can think about this clothing as hiding and revealing something, both at the same time. In a deeper, mystical sense, clothes (levush in Hebrew) is the term which describes the way holy souls are housed inside of us. Our souls help draw down what we need to know and they help guide us on our way. That’s another extraordinary consciousness inside of us.

There is much more available. We have access to eternity, to clarity and to the highest possible light.

Esther is referred to by a name that’s hinted at in Torah. Our Sages ask, “Where is her name hinted at in Torah?” and it’s a verse where G-d is saying, “I will hide my face on that day.”

This verse tells us that Esther is coming from a place of hiddenness, which is also hinted in her name of Esther, which comes from the word “lahastir,” meaning “to hide.” So, she’s coming from this place of hiddenness.

But on the holiday of Purim when she’s the heroine of the day, we read the scroll, the megilla of Esther. The word “megilla” means “reveal” in Hebrew. The whole point of Esther is to reveal G-d’s hiddenness. That’s who Esther really is, a channel for revealing G-d’s hiddenness.

The culmination of the most important event in Esther’s life is when she was asked by Mordecai, the hero of the Purim story, to go and plead the king of the Persians to remove the holocaust decree on the Jews. She replied, “If I do that, not only will I lose my place in this world, but I am likely to lose my place in the World To Come, because I’m offering my sexuality to him as well, if I approach him.”

In other words, her willingness to jeopardize her place in both worlds, her courage to live out, “if I lose, I lose,” referred to her portion in this world and the next world. Her willingness, her self-sacrifice in the situation is what drew down the incredible miracles we saw, and we still draw down every year, to this day on Purim.

Esther was protected upon entering the palace of the King. She was covered in a special, spiritual garb, which meant she didn’t have direct relations, in a normal sense. This covering resulted in sort of a green skin color, and some describe it as a shaid, or a type of non-human entity. This was her garb, allowing her to not only succeed in saving the Jewish people, but also to have relations in a safe way, since it was only a garment of her, not really her.

That garment of Esther, together with the King, gave birth to the next king of Persia, from that night of conception. His name was Sirus, and he’s the one who helped to rebuild the second Temple in Jerusalem.

So, there was great significance to Esther’s act on behalf of her people. Some spiritual sources say she went to the King wearing the spiritual garment of Eve, the wife of Adam. She’s also mentioned as being a personification of the Shechina, by going into the King and saving the Jewish people at that time.

That’s a little bit about Esther, now here’s a little bit about Mordecai…

The redemptive power that saved the Jewish people on Purim is called the Emanation of Mordacai. It’s a spiritual emanation, based on the human being named Mordecai, one of the righteous scholars of the entire generation. That’s the emanation we draw down into our lives on Purim each year, setting the stage for the extraordinary energies we draw down into our lives.

Mordecai was said to have been one of the incarnations of Yaakov, our forefather Jacob, and Mordecai refused to bow down to Hamen, certainly a manifestation of Amalek, the arch enemy of the Jewish people.

But, Mordecai is also said to be a reincarnation of Esau, another member of the same family. Esau was the nemesis of Jacob, and in their previous meeting Jacob bowed down to Esau, in an attempt to diplomatically prevent a confrontation. And both of them came back into this life so that Jacob could rectify that situation when Mordecai refused to bow down to Hamen, formerly Esau.

Rather than Mordecai calling Hamen his master, as in their previous relationship in a previous lifetime, Mordecai was Hamen’s master. In other words, Hamen was his slave in the Purim story.